Kinston folks lend a hand up north

Photo available for purchase

Spc. Troy Brantley, 431st Quartermaster Detachment, Kinston, checks equipment used during water removal operations in various locations throughout New York City Thursday at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. The unit redeployed to JBMDL Thursday after removing thousands of gallons of water from areas most effected as a result of Hurricane Sandy.

Published: Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 11:15 PM.

Photo Galleries

Hurricane Sandy may be gone, but it’s not forgotten for thousands of people in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and other northern states.

Nor has it been forgotten by numerous people living and working in Eastern North Carolina, including public utility and private company employees, American Red Cross volunteers, N.C. Baptist Men and troops from the U.S. Army Reserves Training Center.

The 431st Quartermaster Team from Kinston deployed from Kinston to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst to help pump water out of homes and other buildings in Breezy Point, near Queens.

“This is a very historical mission,” Maj. John Adams, of the 143rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, said. “It’s the first of its kind.”

Adams was referring to the speedy assistance brought about through the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, which was signed following the disastrous recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina.

The 431st Quartermaster Team from Kinston, as well as teams from Jacksonville, provided water pumping capability in flooded areas.

Spc. Troy Brantley of New Bern works with water purification on the Kinston team, which arrived Nov. 5 to begin pumping water.

Hurricane Sandy may be gone, but it’s not forgotten for thousands of people in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and other northern states.

Nor has it been forgotten by numerous people living and working in Eastern North Carolina, including public utility and private company employees, American Red Cross volunteers, N.C. Baptist Men and troops from the U.S. Army Reserves Training Center.

The 431st Quartermaster Team from Kinston deployed from Kinston to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst to help pump water out of homes and other buildings in Breezy Point, near Queens.

“This is a very historical mission,” Maj. John Adams, of the 143rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, said. “It’s the first of its kind.”

Adams was referring to the speedy assistance brought about through the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, which was signed following the disastrous recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina.

The 431st Quartermaster Team from Kinston, as well as teams from Jacksonville, provided water pumping capability in flooded areas.

Spc. Troy Brantley of New Bern works with water purification on the Kinston team, which arrived Nov. 5 to begin pumping water.

“There was one house that was washed completely off its foundation,” he said. The house was at least 10 feet away from the foundation, and water reached as high as 8 feet, he added.

The work was hard, with reserve soldiers transporting hoses up to 50 feet to reach the houses and get the water transported so it wouldn’t run back inside, Brantley said.

“It was an overwhelming experience seeing these beautiful houses picked up and just placed wherever they landed,” he said.

Another Kinston team member, Sgt. Noe Lopez, a mechanic from Havelock, said it took up to an hour and a half to pump out water from each house. More than 250,000 gallons were pumped out of more than eight houses, he said.

“When I entered Breezy Point, I kind of felt glad to help out,” he said. “It makes me feel glad. It’s so good to know that we are needed.

“People were just trying to help people, knowing their whole life had just been washed away.”

Todd Rhodes works as a line crew foreman for Kinston Public Services. He was sent to Connecticut to help repair lines and poles to get power back on. He left Oct. 30 and stayed 11 days.

“There were trees down, just like when we have a hurricane here,” he said. “All of it was pretty bad.”

There were narrow, hilly streets and the ground where the poles are was rocky.

“It would take a long time just to get one hole set,” he said.

When he left Nov. 9, he said he was told as many as 1,000 customers were still without power.

David Brayboy, a third class lineman, also went to assist with power outages.

“A lot of broken poles. A lot of power lines down,” he said. “Trees were laying on houses.”

David Whitfield was sent to Jackson, N.J., through his company, T&D Solutions in Kinston. He first worked in the Washington, D.C., area where the outages were confined to the city area. But in rural Jackson, the work was spread out and about 3 million homes were offline — making the job more time-consuming.

“It wasn’t repair,” he said about the electrical systems. “It was re-build.”

The tropical weather turned to a snowstorm — a first-time experience for Whitfield. The next phase is going into the devastated coastal areas.

“They’re just starting opening up all these barrier islands,” he said, “where we can get in there and go to work.”

Gene Miller, a retired Baptist minister living in Kinston, went to New York City with a group through the American Red Cross and assisted evacuees in some of the shelters. One was a three-story school gymnasium.

“Possibly, they’ll still be in shelters for the rest of the year,” he said.

Miller stayed 14 days and was returning Thursday.

Gaylon Moss, disaster relief director for the N.C. Baptist Men, said he expects Baptist Men teams will be providing meals and assisting with building projects for about six months.

Jerry Crisp was one of the Baptist Men who helped prepare meals in New Jersey.

“It’s part of our service to our church and to our Lord,” he said, “and going out to people and help.”

Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com.

Breakout box:

For more information and photos on Kinston’s 143rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, visit dvidshub.net, click on Military Unit Pages and select the command under Army.